From: Jim Cooper via Kraig R. Meyer
Date: Fri, 07 Apr 1995 23:22:31 -0400
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
DATE: Thursday, April 6, 1995 EDITION: NORTH SPORTS FINAL
SECTION: CHICAGOLAND PAGE: 8 ZONE: N
SOURCE: By Terry Wilson, Tribune Staff Writer.
BOY SCOUTS SUED FOR $1 MILLION BY GAY OVER JOB DISCRIMINATION
When Keith Richardson discovered Scouting in the 2nd grade, the commitment
became one he said he wanted to keep for life.
Richardson, 34, of Chicago, became an Eagle Scout as a teenager-the
highest rank within the Boy Scouts of America-and tried to earn every merit
badge available for service to the community. He remained active with the
Scouts until he was 22, joining the Order of the Arrow, an organization that
serves the Scouts.
On Wednesday, Richardson testified before a Chicago Commission on Human
Rights hearing officer that the group he devoted much of his youth to
discriminated against hiring him as a professional scouter two years ago
because he told officials he is gay.
"It was just plain wrong," Richardson testified, holding back tears as he
explained his reaction to the Scouts' policy against hiring gays.
"When you've grown up through a program, paraded around the country as
part of that program, become an Eagle Scout . . . and you've done more than
any other kid has done and you get told, `No way.' I've never been told
because of who I love I was unfit to work."
Represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, Richardson is seeking
damages of "about $1 million" for depressionlike symptoms he suffered as a
result of being turned away for the Boy Scouts position, said ACLU attorney
Geoffrey Kors.
"This is the first case I'm aware of in the country where a company
acknowledges they have a policy of refusing to hire lesbians or gay men in
spite of a law forbidding it," Kors said.
Sexual orientation is one of the protected classes in Chicago's human
rights ordinance. Cases of alleged violations of the ordinance are heard by
an officer hired by the city's Human Rights Commission.
Testimony in Richardson's case is expected to go on until April 21, after
which the hearing officer, Jeffrey Taren, will give his findings to the
commission. A final ruling is not expected until fall.
Scout attorney George Davidson said the Scouts are covered in the
religious group exemption to the human rights ordinance because Scout groups
claim a duty to God. He also said Richardson's employment history made him
unsuitable to be hired by the Scouts.
During Wednesday's hearing, Davidson called attention to Richardson's
bartending jobs at two North Side bars where X-rated films were shown on
television screens and where parties occurred where patrons sometimes were
partially nude.
Kors said the Scouts denied Richardson employment based on his sexual
orientation well before they knew where he had worked.